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Bureau Veritas

Almuth Ernsting is co-director of Biofuelwatch, an NGO that works “to raise awareness of the negative impacts of industrial biofuels and bioenergy on biodiversity, human rights, food sovereignty and climate change”. She contributed this guest post to FSC-Watch.

Earlier this year, we reported on the ‘anomalous’ circumstances surrounding the certification of Wijma, a company logging in the rainforests of Cameroon. Wijma’s certifier, Bureau Veritas was ‘suspended’ because of Wijma’s certificate, though the certificate itself was allowed to remain in place. Now we learn that, in a complete reversal, Burea Veritas has been ‘re-accredited’ to FSC, but Wijma has mysteriously disappeared off the list of currently certified companies.

Earlier this year, FSC-Watch reported on the curious circumstances surrounding the ‘suspension’ of Bureau Veritas’s (BV) accreditation by FSC for, as yet unrevealed, problems with the certification of the Cameroonian rainforest logging company, Wijma. We now learn that, whilst Bureau Veritas remains prohibited from carrying out FSC certifications in Cameroon, it has just started the process of trying certify the massive logging operations of Rougier, in neighbouring Gabon.

FSC-Watch has previously reported on the highly controversial certification of Wijma, a company logging in the rainforests of Cameroon which the independent observer of forests in that country has repeatedly found to be involved in illegalities.

The certification has now led to the suspension of Wijma’s certifer, Bureau Veritas (formerly Eurocertifor). We have been asked to post the following article, which is submitted by Danielle van Oijen, Forest Campaigner, Milieudefensie / Friends of The Earth Netherlands.